We are starting to use Audacity to record my pastor’s sermon, which I then put on our church’s website. We have a cable going from the sound board to a Behringer UCA202, which is connected to the projection computer (about 3 feet from the sound board). We tried this setup for the first time Sunday, and the signal was much too loud, with so much distortion I couldn’t use the recording. The recording volume on the computer is set at 100%. Is it better to turn down the volume only on the sound board, only on the computer, or use a combination? What’s the best way to get the signal volume at a good recording level?
This would depend on which element of the chain is overloaded. The Beringer input level supports up to 2 dbV so reducing the input level from what you refer to as a sound board would be the first thing to try.
If the computer end was the problem you would see the wave form in Audacity exceeding the maximum scale which would show a clipping warning and put the vu meter in the red zone for significant periods while recording. In this case you would reduce the recording level by changing the Beringers output level possibly using the device interface on the computer though I am not familiar with that.
Usually it’s the analog-to-digital converter in the USB interface that clips (distorts) and unfortunately, the UCA202 doesn’t have an analog recording level control. Turning down the digital volume after it’s distorted won’t help.
If you can’t turn it down from the mixer you can get an inline attenuator or a better audio interface with level controls. (Most higher-end interfaces have switchable mic/line inputs with XLR/TS combo jacks and you’d need an adapter cable with 1/4-inch TS plugs for the line input.)
Of if you have a desktop/tower computer you can use the line-input on the soundcard (blue).
…Next time, test your setup in advance. 
And if it’s super-important to capture-record the service every week, set up a second computer (or a solid state recorder) to run in parallel. (Computers are the least reliable gadgets we own, and often you don’t know there was a recording problem until it’s too late!)
Thanks for the help. OK, most people call it a mixer, but the term I’m used to is “sound board.” I wish we could set things up ahead of time, but the sound man’s schedule is tight, and he prefers to do it Sunday morning. I am fairly knowledgeable with Windows computers, but know almost nothing about sound systems, so I can’t do it without him. I’m hoping that learning the right approach will help us to be more efficient and able to make the right adjustments before the service on Sunday. And I’ll stay close to the computer while it’s recording to do any fine-tuning that’s needed. I was not in the sound booth last Sunday.
The computer is an old Dell laptop, which actually has separate input and output audio jacks, and the input jack can be configured for microphone or line-in. So we can record on it without the UCA202. But the laptop that we’ll probably move to sometime this year only has a combo audio jack. Recently I even saw a post on this forum where someone’s new laptop didn’t have an audio jack at all. We need to start using the UCA202; information online suggests that we’ll get a better signal from it, too.
I suspect that the problem comes from having everything set up to record through the computer’s line-in jack, as we had to turn everything all the way up for that to work. The UCA202 doesn’t need so much volume, so we have to turn things back down for it to sound best. The question is, how much? And where? The Audacity waveform shows considerable clipping (over 90% is red). I’ve told the sound man that we need to reduce the volume at the sound board by at least 50%, but I wonder if we should also reduce the recording volume on the computer. I don’t know how the two volume controls work together, or how either affects signal quality, so that’s the reason for my question.
Can he lower your level without affecting the volume in the church?
If you’ve got the right cables try the line input at home with a CD/DVD player or the audio out from your TV, etc.
Low digital volumes are not a problem unless they are VERY low. Pros often record at -12 to 18dB. You may want to shoot-for around -6dB or less since the level in a live situation is unpredictable.
You can run the Amplify or Normalize effect after recording to bring-up the volume.
If you “try” to go over 0dB you’ll get clipping (distortion).
If you have low analog levels that’s often an indication of a problem but it doesn’t hurt to turn it down before it’s digitized.
If you happen to remember analog tape, digital is different. With tape you wanted a “hot” signal to overcome tape noise, and you could go over 0dB “into the red” where it would start to “saturate” or soft-clip before the distortion gets bad, but digital hard-clips at 0dB.
Like I said, with the USB input you want to avoid clipping the analog-to-digital converter inside the Behringer and reducing the computer’s volume won’t eliminate the distortion. You can leave it at 100%. (But the recording control may not even work with a digital input.)
With the line input Audacity’s volume control should work.
Yes, he can. At least he said that adjusting the volume was easy. It sounds like that’s the control we should focus on.
That’s good to know!
Except we need to get away from using the line input. This laptop is 14 1/2 years old, so it’s living on borrowed time. It uses Windows 7, which is no longer supported. That’s why I’ve been getting a different laptop ready to take its place, the one with the combo audio jack. It’s ready enough to use, but switching involves learning new church projection software, so for now we’re staying with the old, familiar laptop and software. Except when I substitute for the projectionist, I like to use the newer laptop with the newer software. She hasn’t asked me to substitute for a while, but last summer I ran the projector almost as much as she did.
My current plan is to get recording working using the Behringer and the old computer, then try the newer computer. I’m hoping that it will work with the same sound board settings, but that remains to be seen. If the two computers need different sound board settings, then it will be impractical to switch back and forth, so I’ll talk to the projectionist about going ahead and switching computers. But first we have to get recording working using the Behringer.
That 90% red comment sounds like what happens when you connect an amplified speaker output to a line input.
There are mixers that have built-in SD card writers. Using one would be as simple as removing the card and plugging it in to a USB on some computer and copying the file.
You could also try recording to a 32-bit float field recorder. No clipping on those.
2 V is correct
But a average of 1.25 V is a very good start .
Level your system using pink noise is most common
If your using a Digital connection all the way Then 100% on you computer should not be a problem
If your using any kind of Analog connection then leveling in puts and outputs is important
Your MIC signals should peak out around zero use a compressor and a noise gate to control them
IE: RMS at -12 Db and peak at -2 Db
IN a good setting your recording level should hover around 6 Db less on both levels
But the artistic valves can vary quit a lot
Good EX; +4 or -10 out put settings ( PRO or Consumer)
You can always level the loudness and peak after recording
NOTE:
Using 100% 0n your recording input is the way to go
It is what your input signal is doing is what is important
Your monitor and your recording outputs should be separate
Your sound Tech should know this
I’m pretty sure nobody is going to be measuring/monitoring voltage or dBu (electrical) levels… This is not a pro studio. They will be monitoring the digital dBFS levels with Audacity and that’s what’s important.
Correct then its the input signal
that needs to be explored
Before Audacity
Cool Stuff…
Wow, thanks for all the good feedback! This has caused me to do some serious research, and it’s starting to make sense.
The mixer is a Mackie SR24.4-VLZ Pro. I went over to the church Monday to make sure the UCA202 was set up correctly, and while I was there I traced the cable from the UCA202 back to the mixer to see where it was connected. Back home, I found the mixer’s user manual online and looked up what that port was. I believe the UCA202 is connected to Aux Sends 1. More research to find out what that is, and it seems like that’s a very reasonable place to put a cable to a recording device. There is also no money to buy any fancy equipment. One of the appeals of the UCA202 was its affordability. Our sound man knows his stuff, but this is the first time any of us has recorded to a computer from a soundboard.
When we were recording through the line-in jack on the computer, we had trouble getting a strong signal to the computer. The best we could get was a max recording level of about -11dB, and that was with everything turned all the way up. And when I say all the way up, that’s exactly what I mean. Looking at the mixer’s user manual, I find, “Each AUX knob’s level ranges from off, through unity (center detent position), on up to 15dB of extra gain.” That means the volume from the mixer had that 15db of extra gain. Clearly the UCA202 is more efficient and doesn’t need the extra gain, but we didn’t realize there was such a difference between the devices. So we had a much stronger signal than we needed, which blew the lid off our recording levels and caused considerable clipping.
I still have a question, though. The mixer has 6 Aux Sends ports; 1 & 2 are always pre-fader, 5 & 6 are always post-fader, and 3 & 4 can be either way using a switch. I really don’t understand the difference between pre- and post-fader, but the little bit I’ve found online makes me wonder if the UCA202 should be connected to a post-fader port. What are your thoughts on this?
Hi Nancy,
I had a quick look at the manual (hope it was the right one) and my instinct tells me the post-fader option seems right. I also had the impression that the mixer has a USB output so it’s quite likely it could feed straight into the laptop leaving the UCA202 out of the picture completely. I see two advantages to that:
- Fewer things in the signal path, fewer things to fail.
- The audio quality of the mixer is likely to be higher than that of the Behringer.
Of course, if you can’t get the laptop physically close to the mixer, the extra cabling required to use the Behringer will give you more positioning options.
Your resourcefulness has impressed me. I have no doubt you will crack it. Maybe you should be answering questions on here rather than asking them.
Good luck.
Mark B
Thanks for looking at this. You may not have found the right user manual. The one I found very clearly identifies this model on the cover page and has a copyright of 2004. It’s an older analog mixer, not likely to have any USB ports. I searched the manual for “USB”, with no results. Another search for “output” returned 65 results. Looking over the drawing they have of the mixer, I don’t see anything that looks like a USB port. A USB output would certainly be nice, but I don’t think it has one. But thanks anyway!
Oops, my mistake then. Sorry about that. 
No problem.